Mikey Campbell
The U.S. International Trade Commission on Thursday filed an extension of its decision on whether Samsung infringed on certain Apple patents, a claim that could see a sales ban of products made by the South Korean tech giant.
While the ITC offered no explanation as to why it was extending the decision, which was scheduled to be handed down today, the body noted in its late-Thursday filing that a final ruling will be delivered on Aug. 9.
As noted by CNET, the rescheduled date falls on the same day that Apple and Samsung are slated to meet for oral arguments related to the landmark Apple v. Samsung trial that found the Korean company in violation of a number of Apple's patents.
The ITC review stems from a patent countersuit by Apple lodged in July 2011, which itself was a response to a Samsung complaint against the iPhone, iPad and iPod.
Presiding over the Apple case was Judge Thomas Pender, who issued an initial determination against Samsung in October. Upon the request of both parties, the ITC agreed to review all aspects of the case in January, subsequently remanding two Apple patents back to Judge Pender.
After the remand initial determination was issued in March, the Commission determined to review the ID and RID, asking for briefs from the parties, interested government agencies and the public.
According to the ITC's Thursday filing, the Aug. 9 completion date will bring an end to the months-long proceedings.
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11 Comments
Good to see Apple being banned and Samsung getting extension on decision.
I thought it was US ITC but then I found out it is SK ITC.
So... Apple uses standards essential tech and gets banned. Samsung blatantly rips off design elements, proprietary tech, UI layouts, hardware design, etc. and gets an extension allowing them to still sell infringing products. Great. Gotta love it when your own country sells you out.
SEPs don't mean you get to use them without paying and they also don't mean you can charge someone unfairly. No one really knows if Samsung was demanding too much and I'd wager that different people have different feelings on what is fair. All we know is that Apple said "no thanks" to the original offer and continued to use those patents without paying anything. They're banking on not getting banned because they're Apple and how would the American ITC ban them against some foreigners?!
It would seem that the difficulty in coming to a "fair and reasonable price" is probably related to how this same patent is used among the other companies.
Motorola and Samsung decide to share all/some/essential patents so they both get to make phones with required SEPs.
Nokia and Samsung decide to share all/some/essential patents so they both get to make phones with required SEPs.
Apple offers no patents in return and so Samsung gives a price that they feel is worth the patents that the other companies have offered them. This was obviously too much in Apple's eyes.
Let's also not forget that many of the patent's that Samsung is accused of violating could be wiped away in a software update while the patents Apple has been accused of using are essential to the phone actually working.
(Ugh. Deleted. What's the point.)